Second Long Night
The Great War, informally referred to as the Long Night, is the ultimate culmination of the long-simmering Conflict Beyond the Wall: the war between the living and the dead. It is the second war waged by the White Walkers against humanity, the first having occurred thousands of years ago during the first Long Night in the form of the War for the Dawn. The opening stages of the Great War are a war of attrition between the Night King, his legions of White Walkers, and their army of the dead against the living peoples of Westeros. Currently, they are opposed by the Night's Watch, the North, the Stormlands, the Riverlands, the Reach, the Vale, the Brotherhood Without Banners, the Winter Contingency and the Free Folk, all under the leadership of Jon Snow, the King in the North and Lord Castifer Stark, the head of House Stark. Jon is later joined by Daveth Baratheon, the former King of the Andals and the First Men, who commands the military forces of House Baratheon, and Daenerys Targaryen, who leads the forces of House Targaryen along with House Lannister under her Hand, Tyrion Lannister. Jaime Lannister also abandons his sister Cersei to travel north to Winterfell to join the forces of the North after she reveals her intentions to Jaime to hold back her forces. Although expected to threaten all of Westeros and possibly the world, the Great War at its beginning is centered on the North, as the southern kingdoms are in disbelief of the White Walkers and are more preoccupied with the aftermath of the War of the Five Kings and Daenerys Targaryen's invasion of Westeros, another long-awaited conflict which began around the same time the North began preparations for the coming Great War. History Prelude See main articles: Long Night and Conflict Beyond the Wall The White Walkers first descended upon Westeros during the Age of Heroes 8,000 years ago, bringing with them a cold and terrible winter and a dark night that never ended. The Night King had been created thousands of years prior by the Children of the Forest, the natives of Westeros, with dragonglass to combat the invading First Men in the Dawn Age, but the Children and the First Men came together in War for the Dawn to fight against their common enemy. The White Walkers and their wights, which had been raised from those that they slaughtered, were defeated and driven back to the far north while the Wall was raised and the Night's Watch formed to prevent the White Walkers from returning. Many were trapped north of the Wall, becoming the Free Folk, while those south of the Wall began to form kingdoms. As the many centuries passed, most of Westeros came to see the magical White Walkers and Children of the Forest as nothing more than legends and scary fairy tales, especially as the Andals and the Rhoynar had never encountered them on Westeros since their migrations came thousands of years after the Long Night. However, the White Walkers eventually rose from the ice again beyond the Wall around the time of Robert's Rebellion. While the southern Seven Kingdoms were preoccupied with their own civil war and largely did not believe in the White Walkers, the Free Folk, who were being slaughtered by the White Walkers to amass a new army of the dead, were attempting to cross the Wall while the Night's Watch was seeking out the truth and fighting against their old wildling enemies in the Conflict Beyond the Wall."Season 1""Season 2""Season 3""Season 4" However, the Night's Watch, under Lord Commander Jon Snow, let the wildlings cross the Wall with the help of his half-brother, King Castifer Stark and King Stannis I Baratheon after realizing the existence of the White Walkers and the threat that they posed. They come south of the Wall after the attempted rescue mission at Hardhome. This decision led to a mutiny but Jon was resurrected and freed from his life long vows to the Night's Watch. Seeking to unite the North against the White Walkers, Jon, himself the alleged illegitimate son of Ned Stark, joined with his half-siblings Sansa Stark and King Castifer Stark to save their younger brother Rickon Stark and reclaim their home Winterfell from House Bolton, who had previously usurped House Stark from the North after the Red Wedding. Ramsay Bolton and his allies were defeated and killed at the Battle of the Bastards, and in the aftermath of the battle, Castifer became Lord of Winterfell and Lord Regent of the North when he stepped down in favor of his half-brother so Jon was declared the King in the North by his half-brother Castifer, the lords of the North and the Vale at Winterfell. Around the same time, Daenerys Targaryen, the only known survivor of the once ruling royal House Targaryen who'd been ousted during Robert's Rebellion, begun setting sail for Dragonstone with her allies, vassals, and three dragons, the first born in the world in over a century. At this time, Bran Stark discovered via Greensight that Jon, unbeknownst to all including Jon himself, is of both Stark and Targaryen lineage as the secret son of Lyanna Stark, Ned Stark's sister, and Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, Daenerys's eldest brother, both of whom died in Robert's Rebellion."Season 5""Season 6" Season 7 Season 8 The Night King and the White Walkers march their army of the dead south deep into the North, eventually reaching Winterfell where a great battle takes place between the army of the dead and an alliance of living armies led by Houses Stark, Baratheon, Targaryen, and Arryn.Season 8 References Category:Articles by MarkRulez711 Category:Wars Category:History Category:Second Long Night